Lögberg-Heimskringla - 18.12.1981, Blaðsíða 2

2-WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 18. DESEMBER 1981
Christmas
translated by Kristjana Gunnars
from: Undir Kalstjörnu
by Sigurður A. Magnússon
As far back as I could remember,
Christmas had been the most anx-
ious and dismal time of the year,
and those feelings increased with
every new year. Knowing that other
children looked forward to
Christmas and thoroughiy relished
the holidays only added to my
misery. This was partly due to a
tenacious habit of my father's to get
drunk on the day before Christmas.
On those occasions he usually drank
alone and became excessively de-
jected and plaintive. It was probably
rooted in some childhood ex-
Frá
ritstjórn
Jólablað Lögbergs-Heimskringlu
er síðasta tölublað þessa árs.
Skrifstofa blaðsins verður lokuð
milli jóla og nýárs. Fyrsts blað ársins
1982 kemur úr 15. janúar.
From the
editor
This is the last issue of Lögberg-
Heimskringla this year. The
editorial office will be closed during
the Christmas holidays. The first
issue in 1982 will appear on the 15
of January.
perience or memory which he never
directly revealed, but which I sens-
ed intuitively behind his drunken
chatter and tears.
Dad's psychological state colored
all our Christmases. Mom was
depressed and vexed before she
disappeared. Marta was discon-
solate and forbearing and did what
she could to create a holiday at-
mosphere, but it was next to im-
possible since dad was invariably
boisterous when he drank. His
tirades and sobs accompanied us
every Christmas Eve, but on
Christmas Day he suffered from
hangovers, which spread a different
kind of unhappiness over the home.
By the second day of Christmas he
had usually recovered and then my
mother's relatives sometimes
visited and played cards half of the
night.
Christmas trees were unheard of
in the home and gifts were rare, ex-
cept we always got a few candles
each and together we were given a
pack of cards; I seem to recall they
had pictures of ancient Icelandic
heroes on them. If there was any
money at hand, we were outfitted
with the most necessary clothing.
The only pleasant part of
Christmas was the baking Marta did
during. the week before the
holidays. She made doughnuts and
various kinds of cookies, pancakes
and one or two tortes with jam.
These breads were a great novelty
and we managed to put away with
incredible speed what she had been
baking long into the night on the
preceeding week. As a holiday
distinction, we also usually got hot
chocolate which we though of as a
delicacy.
We customarily received some
items of clothing from charity in
that season; used clothes that were
invariably much needed and which
lasted us till the following summer
and even longer. The only unusual
thing ’about our first Christmas in
the summer cottage was that its
owner, the tailor in Reykjavík, gave
us kids brand new garments; Systa
got a lovely dress and white socks,
and us boys got shirts, bow ties,
knitted vests and shorts, as well as
cotton socks which were a thorough
novelty. We siblings had, I guess,
never been so smartly attired in all
our lives. Mom made it her first job
when she came for a visit after
Christmas, to take us to the
photographer's, but she was sorely
unhappy with the results; for I had
both lost an incisor tooth and smiles
apishly, and had worn a band
around my head for so long that
there was no way of controlling my
hair. Mom herself did not want to
be in the picture with us, which I
thought was strange, but as it turned
out it made no difference since the
negatives were lost and the attempt
to have proper photos made from
them never occurred.
Dad wept an unusual amount that
Christmas because of the tailor's
generosity, which took him com-
pletely by surprise. He shed tears
when the tailor arrived and then I
was mortified and ashamed. But he
cried much more after he had gone,
so the joy of the gifts was smitten by
a weariness over dad's drunken
gloom.
I was taken aback to see dad's
reactions to all of this when he was
sober again. It was as if he felt
humiliated over having accepted the
tailor's gifts and wept over them. He
found fault with the man and said it
cost him nothing, a stinking rich
tailor, to throw a few useless pieces
of clothing at the poor to pacify his
conscience. The only way I could
understand this was, that the gifts
had wounded his pride, and I
thought that was absurd since we
were indeed poor and had all the
need in the world for the clothes we
received; and we did accept what
charity offered without a murmur.
For another thing, dad never seem-
ed to consider that we needed
clothing or anything when he
wanted to enjoy himself. The
alcohol purchases at Christmas ir-
ritated me especially, for not only
did he waste money that was better
spent on necessities, but he ruined
the holiday joy that might have been
kindled if he had been sober.
I was generally very relieved
when the celebrations of the
Savior's Birth were over. On the
other hand, New Year's Eve was the
holiday that lit up the Dark Season,
for then there were bonfires and we
were allowed to stay out past mid-
night. There was no thought of un-
bought gifts or festivities that only
awakened grief and sorrow; instead
everything was illuminated by the
relief of knowing that yet another
dismal year was burnt out and
would never return.
Leskaflar í íslensku handabyrjendum
XXXIX.
The declension of the indefinite
somebody) runs as follows:
Sing. Masc.
Nom. einhver
Acc. einhvern
Dat. einhverjum
Gen. einhvers
Plur.
Nom. einhvérjir
Acc. einhverja
pronoun einhver (some, someone,
Fem.
einhver
einhverja
einhverri
einhverrar
einhverjar
einhverja
Neuter
eitthvert (eitthvað)
eitthvert (eitthvað)
einhverju
einhvers
einhver
einhver
Dat. all einhverjum
Gen. genders einhverra
Note that einhver is used mainly in affirmative sentences; eitthvert is an
adjective, whereas eitthvað is a noun.
Translate into English:
Einhver sagði mér eitthvað um einhverja nemendur, sem höfðu rangt við
í prófunum. Einhvern veginn trúi ég því þó ekki. Sú saga hlýtur að koma frá
einhverjum, sem hefir sagt einhverja vitleysu. Ég veit það ekki, en einhvers
staðar heyrði ég þetta nú samt. Auðvitað eru alltaf einhverjir, sem ekki seg-
ja sannleikann, en einhverju verður maður að trúa.
Það er eitthvert vit í því að hlusta á góðra manna ráð, þegar maður er sjálfur
í einhverjum vandræðum. Það hljóta að vera einhver börn hér í einhverjum
vandræðum. Það hljóta að vera einhver börn hér í sveitinni, sem af
einhverri ástæðu eiga þess ekki kost að njóta einhverrar kennslu.
Vocabulary:
af einhverri ástæðu, for some reason
auðvitað, of course
eiga þess ekki kost, do not have
the opportunity
einhvern veginn, somehow
einhverra hluta vegna, for some
reasons
einhvers staðar, some place
hlusta á, listen
njóta, enjoy, benefit from some-
thing, get advantage from some-
thing
prófunum, neuter, examinations,
dat. plur. of próf
ráð, neuter, advice, acc. plur. of
ráð
saga, fem., story
samt, however, yet
sannleikann, masc., truth, acc.
sing. of sannleiki
hlýtur, must, is bound to, pres.
ind. of hljóta
höfðu rangt við, cheated, from
hafa rangt við
kennslu, fem., instruction,
teaching, gen. sing. of kennsla
maður, masc., indef. pronoun, one
nemendur, masc., pupils, students,
acc. plur. of nemandi
sveitinni, fem., district, parish,
dat. sing. of sveit
trúi, believe, pres. ind. of trúa
vandræðum, neuter, trouble, dat.
plur. of the plur. noun
vandræði
veit,know(s), pres. ind. of vita
vit, neuter, sense
vitleysu, fem., nonsense, acc. sing.
of vitleysa
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS
RESTAURANT
For that something special at Christmas.
Smoked eel, rulepylse, headcheese, liverpate and
Danish pastries. Dinnerand Smorrebrod served daily.
Monday to Thursday - 11:30 a.m. - 8: 30 p.m.
Friday & Saturday - 11:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
1875 Pcmbina Highway "WINE LICENSE" Phona 261-1448